November 10, 2008

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Today on "The Radio Factor," Bill O'Reilly and Greta van Susteren debated whether some recent pieces on Sarah Palin -- including one by Fox's Carl Cameron -- are gossip or real reporting. (Johnny Dollar captured the audio).

There was great concern in the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin lacked a degree of knowledgeability necessary to be a running mate, a vice president, and a heartbeat away from the presidency.

We are told by folks that she didn’t know what countries were in NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement. That’d be Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. We’re told that she didn’t understand that Africa was a continent, rather than a series — a country just in itself. A whole host of questions that caused serious problems about her knowledgability.

"I would not have reported gossip anonymously," van Susteren said, adding that Cameron told her later that he "messed up on this one."

UPDATE: Well, now it's no longer anonymous. Martin Eisenstadt has come forward as a source on the Africa and NAFTA leaks to Cameron. Palin had called the sources cowards for speaking anonymously. "But Sarah," writes Eisenstadt, "careful what you ask for: some of us may have more to reveal." And he does. (h/t FishbowlDC). And that was likely a hoax, as Bill Wolfrum points out. So now we're back to the O'Reilly-van Susteren debate over anonymous sources.

UPDATE 2: Bill Kristol discussed both the Africa and NAFTA stories yesterday on "Fox News Sunday," and had explanations for both. Transcript after the jump.

WALLACE: Well, what is the truth about Africa or about NAFTA?

KRISTOL: The truth about NAFTA is she had a long day of briefings. She went through NAFTA, CAFTA. There was a lot of stuff going on. And at the end -- there had been distractions and stuff. She said, "Let's just go through it one more time. Now, what exactly -- what's the relationship of NAFTA, which countries are in CAFTA?" That's the Central American Free Trade agreement. I couldn't tell you which countries are in it.

"Which countries do we have free trade agreements with in Latin America? Is it Chile?" Perfectly sensible question at the end of a long day, just to get it clarified, and that makes it seem as if she doesn't know like what -- -- what's North America.

The Africa comment was she was doing -- apparently, Steve Schmidt was firing her rapid -- giving her rapid-fire questions and sort of debate prep, and she had actually gone through a long discussion with Beegan (ph) and others about Bush's Africa policy, the AIDS policy, what was happening in the Congo -- all of this.

And she began the answer by saying something like -- you know, it was a kind of practice thing, and they asked her the question, and she said, "Look, Africa's a country with a lot of problems." It was a slip of the tongue, you know? And then she went on to discuss what was happening in Africa.

This does not mean that she doesn't understand that Africa is a continent, not a country. So that tells you something about just the petty maliciousness, unfortunately, of a few staffers speaking on background.

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Fox should not report gossip? hahahhaha. Does that mean they are going off the air? :)
All they do is gossip and heresay. No gossip = no fox. Please o'reilly. Pull all gossip from fox. this ought to be rich. Pull the whole station while your at it. :)

As a lifelong conservative, this is why I have tuned out Fox completely. The story contrieved when there is no story. Sarah Palin failed. It is revealed in the polls and the numbers. What more needs to be said even if the campaign said nothing. The fact she is now on every cable and major news station shows her ego in fullforce. I don't want this brainless twit cannabolizing and destroying what is left of the conservative brand further. She is a Walmart mom...not ready for a national election. She hurt McCain tremendously, a bozo, a moron, a bread winner focusing upon her own ambitions, more than McCain, and her own dignity. Memo to Matt and Wolfe- no one cares about Sarah Palin.

Lower 60's for Sarah Palin running for President, when 90% voted McCain/ Palin, and she just ran an election? Get real, a social conservative brain dead will be lucky to carry Alabama and Mississipi in 2012. She lost 28% of conservative voters a day after the election. Someday, besides Karl Rove, can some of the conservatives start doing math? Thanks in advance.

The fact that anybody would see it as Sarah Palin losing the election for McCain, or that it is her ego in full force driving news stories about her, is out of touch, vengeful or dishonest! McCain ran the worst campaign in history. How many Republicans did he insult that were campaigning for him? There's Tenn. and North Carolina, anyone running Rev. Wright ads, or using Obama's middle name, just to name a few. Sarah Palin was the only bright spot in his campaign, and they blew it on that front too! Putting her on with Katie Curic and Charlie Gibson where her comments were strongly edited so they were taken out of context, and NOT putting her on O'Rielly Factor. What a dumb and sore bunch of losers the McCain camp is! The Democrats don't want them, and now the Republican camp won't either. Great Job, McCain!

Walmart Mom, you're out of touch, just like half of the republican party. It's OK though, as long as your brand of conservatism has any power, the republicans will continue to lose until they realize that the walmart moms will not win the middle.
Sarah Palin, like most Americans, is ignorant of Geography. It's probably not her fault, but it does disqualify her from national office.

It IS gossip...........and just because Michael Calderone says it isn't, doesn't make it so.....Carl Cameron acted irresponsible in reporting the story in the first place. I could tell he couldn't wait to throw Sarah Palin under the bus. I'm not an idiot. IT was obvious AND IT was gossip!

While "Look, Africa's a country with a lot of problems." might be a slip of the tongue, it is the kind of tongue-slip that would have exploded the VP debate.
It might not speak to her ignorance, but it certainly speaks to her mental sharpness and I can see why the staffers prepping her on that question would have flipped out.
Imagine prepping her, following the Couric interview, and hearing those words come out of her mouth. It'd be incredibly frustrating.

Fine, it was a "slip of the tongue". I guess the dozens of slip-ups, gaffes, and ignorant ramblings that she gave during multiple interviews over three months - with Couric, Gibson, campaign trail journalists, etc - were all "slips" too. How much proof does the extreme right need to understand that this woman is an ignorant fool? Her supporters are starting to sound like cult members, denying reality until the very end. Guess what? The mother ship ISN'T coming, people.

Let's see Palin spin her way out of this quote: ?Just looking into the record. It was reported that I tried to ban Harry Potter when it hadn't even been written when I was the mayor. So, gosh, we have so many examples, I mean every day, especially the first few weeks, every day something that was thrown out there.?(Andy Barr)
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Sarah Palin served two terms (1996?2002) as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. That makes her the mayor when the first book in the Harry Potter series was published in June of 1997.
Is she lying or is she merely ignorant? Either way, Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps on giving

You won't hear of any slip ups by Obama or Biden on the news, because they are in the tank for him. How can anyone dwell on Sarah Palin not being qualified when Joe Biden and Michelle Obama were pulled from doing media events because they were messing up Obama's chances. Do you really want me to start posting the links to the famous Joe Biden gafs?